The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I was a 2018 awardee and for my summer 2019 internship, my SF didn’t realize they needed to do the security paperwork. I think they thought SMART would handle it? Idk. There was like 12 of us and no one had anything done prior to arriving at our SF. Eventually they submitted our security stuff (had us fill out the SF-86, fingerprints, references) in the beginning of the internship. It took 8 weeks for me to get a CAC and computer access to be able to do anything for the 10 week internship. That’s a lot of sitting around doing nothing waiting for paperwork to process. I’m not even sure if we were ever truly granted a “conditional” clearance or not.

If you haven’t heard anything, make sure your SF is aware that they need to do whatever necessary paperwork before your internship so that you can get access to the computers and other facility things you may need.

Just a reminder that it is not all that rare to be told to take classes instead. Clearances have been taking ages in some cases and refusing interim. My clearance took 3 years, I started work 8 months after graduation. So be prepared, especially when many offices are less staffed, to keep taking classes.

My SF has already gotten me to submit some clearance paperwork but nothing beyond that (fingerprints, questionnaire, sent letters to my previous employers, thats it). If you have an SF liaison you can talk to I would maybe ask them if there is anything you need to be doing. If you don't have/know of one, ask your scholar coordinator if they know who it is.

Hey y'all,

So I am confused about how my SF will go about the internship this (or really, during a normal) summer. Should I be doing anything right now to make sure that everything will be kosher for me to have an internship this summer? Any forms I need to fill out or people to contact? I just started in the new cohort this fall.

Thanks!